Back in September 1992 I posted the following post in my Odds and End Thoughts blog:

I’ve long had an interest in dreaming, and in particular, lucid dreams. . . . [The following are some of the guidelines of LC that I find hopeful:] "Lucid dreams are very special because it puts you in control of your dreams. You’re the boss. You tell the dream where you want to go or what you want to do. You can also ask questions of the dream. For instance, you can ask the bear, “Who are you and what are you doing in my dream?”

[That's the theory, anyway.]

. . . One of the most popular themes in lucid dreaming, at least as far as I have been able to determine, is flying. It is reported as being exhilarating, liberating and just plain fun.

I have flown only once in my dreams, no twice, although the second time was during a hypnogogic state of mind. . . .

In my flying dream, many, many years ago [not lucid], I was flying over a forested, mountainous land. However, I hadn’t gone very far before I woke up. I don’t recall feeling anything in particular, but I rarely do in my dreams.

The hypnogogic “dream” was much more interesting. At the time I lived in a large valley between two mountain ranges running north and south. I lived much closer to the western range.

I was drifting off toward sleep when I suddenly found myself flying—more like being ushered through the air by some unknown force—toward the western range. When I found myself above the westerns range, looking down I noticed small eruptions of fire out of the ground, not unlike the photo above, [see blog post] but on a much smaller scale.

I don’t know the history of these mountains, except that they were and are rich in minerals such as gold, silver and copper. Nowhere has there been any signs of eruptions, even slight ones.

I don’t know what the purpose of the first flying dream was, but I’ve since wondered if the hypnogogic “dream” represented the aftermath of some earth-changing event of the future.

However, regarding lucid dreams, I have had three of them throughout my many years. I remember them all.

Lucid dream #1 and #2 were identical in theme and length. I don't think I was anywhere in particular in the dream, but as soon as I realized I was dreaming, two men immediately jumped on my back and bore me to the ground, whereupon I immediately woke up.

You can be sure these dreams got me thinking. They weren’t at all what they were cracked up to be. I was not only disappointed, but I was left to wonder their significance.

In lucid dream #3 I was walking down a street than ended in a 'T' [intersection]. In the yard of the property [to my right] of the 'T' intersection was a man shouting at me all sorts of nasty things. It appeared he was unable to move from the property. Directly across the street from him was another man, also shouting nasty things at me. It appeared he was also unable to move from the property.

I continued walking toward the ‘T’ intersection, ignoring the two violent, angry men, and turned left at the ‘T’. After walking not very far, I decided I would like to fly. I had no doubt I would be able to fly since I knew this was a dream.

However, fate overruled my knowing, for as soon as I leaped into the air, I immediately came right back down onto the pavement. My second try ended with the same result. On my third attempt to fly, and in the middle of my leap, I woke up.

Thus ended my last experience with lucid dreams.

To say I was disappointed was putting it mildly. The fact that I was unable to control my lucid dream after reading of many others’ experiences in lucid dreaming, left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, so to speak.

I’ve thought much about the appearance of these two angry and violent men who appeared in all three of my lucid dreams and wondered about their significance.

Has anyone else had this kind of experience with lucid dreaming? I’d love to hear from you, if you have.

[If you desire, you can read the entire post at: http://oddsandendthoughts.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/in-my-case-lucid-dreams-arent-all-what-theyre-cracked-up-to-be/ All comments inside brackets are not included in the original post.]

Thanks for dropping by and, uh, commenting. The only thing I saw was the word, "Image". So I don't know if you had sent some sort of image and I am just not able to figure out how to access it, but I thank you for making the attempt.

I thought this was odd. Did we even HAVE blogs back then or even the internet for that matter.

Cris_MO wrote:http://oddsandendthoughts.wordpress.com/2012

Then I realized it was a typo and you mean 2012. (You can always edit that)

But that aside, I have many lucid dreams and admit, They are not all what they are cracked up to be sometimes.

I still can't fly very well. (but then again I think flying is overrated). And there are many times I want something to happen in the dream and it simply doesn't. Or if I go too far and try to manipulate it too much, I just end up 'pretending' and not dreaming and it fades to nothing and I usually wake up or get a false awakening afterward.

I still find them enjoyable and no matter what happens in them, I always wake up feeling more refreshed and clear headed after a lucid dream (more than a non-lucid or dreamless night).

Yeah, I don't know where my head was when I wrote 1992. I don't think I even had a computer back then.

Well, I'm sure hoping for a lucid dream. When I'm in dreams, it seems I don't have any ability to reason, for when I wake up, I often think, for instance, well, that man was really fat when I first saw him, then the next time I saw him, he was trim. But I'm not able to figure that out in my dreams. That was a real happening, by the way.

As often as not, I am observing a dream, not participating in one, but often I am a participant, but rarely am I actually able to think out a situation. In the one I wrote about in Introduce Yourself (Lucid Wannabe), I was both an observer and a participator at different stages in the dream. Yet, I can never seem to put 2 and 2 together, or figure out that, hey, this can't be real.

One has to be able to do one of those, I would think, to realize one is dreaming. Meanwhile, I just keep plugging along. Thanks for reading and commenting.

I was thinking about what I wrote and wanted to emphasize the word 'sometimes' (not always). 9/10 times my lucid dreams are hard to control and I am not fully lucid, although I know it is a dream I go along with it and even view it like an observer or 3rd person who is directing the dream.

Then there are the 1/10 times I am blown away and immersed in a whole new world.

So maybe they are what they are cracked up to be, but in my experience I get disappointed often. Maybe I expect too much.

Whenever I WBTB (Wake back to bed) I tend to think more clearly in the dream and my chances of realizing that I am lucid are greatly increased. Sometimes I don't even realize until the very last dream in the morning. And other days, I never realize at all even though all the signs where there. It happens. (for me anyway. Some are lucid all the time, but not most of us.)

I appreciate your candor regarding your lucid dreams. My third dream I was, I think, fully lucid. The first two I didn't get a chance to, as I was immediately taken down as soon as I realized I was dreaming, although I don't know how I realized I was dreaming, or how these two characters knew I knew I was dreaming. There didn't seem to be anything involved in triggering the realization. I guess you could say the same thing for the third dream, as well, as I don't know why I knew I was dreaming; I just did.

In my third dream, I didn't seem to have my thinking cap on, as all I wanted to do was fly. If I were able to think at all reasonably, there are a lot of other things I could have and would have done that would have been a lot more meaningful.

Whenever I wake up, then I realize that I should have been able to tell I was dreaming because of this or that, but in my dream state, even if I realized that something just wasn't right, I couldn't figure out that it was because I was dreaming. It just somehow seemed natural, even though it didn't.

Or sometimes, a dream should feel unnatural but rather seems quite natural, like my Avengers dream. Sheesh! All I can do is keep trying and hoping.

Your last paragraph summed it up for me: "And other days, I never realize at all even though all the signs where there."

I was going to reply to each paragraph, but it is simpler just to say, "YES. I agree with all of what you said."

There's something I call the dream stuper. I become lucid, but don't think like my logical self, and tend to follow the 'story of the dream' as if it makes sense or is somehow important to carry out. Even when I realize it and am free to roam, I don't always remember my pre-planned goal for the lucid dream. I often forget what it was. I have recently gotten in the habit of stating out loud in the dream, "I have a purpose." (I don't know what it is right a way, but I break free from the stuper and it helps me remember what it was I was planning to do, if anything).

But practice makes perfect. And all the 'failures' are really just stepping stones on the path to learning.

I would encourage you to continue to try lucid dreaming, just because I know it's possible to have such mind-blowing experiences in them. That's based on my experiences with it which have mostly been incredible. I have to say that lucid dreaming for me has been way more then it is cracked up to be, but then I don't measure how good a lucid dream is by how much control I have over the dream. The measure for me is how real the dream world is and just knowing the whole time that it's only dream is so amazing. So don't give up!

Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world? Morpheus

Sooner or later you will get one which will blow you away. If you arent in good control its usually cause its a lower level lucid dream eg less normal waking conciousness in it. LDing may not come naturally to all and some will really need to work on it and grow in their experience of it.

There seems thou to be a part of yourself (manifesting by that guy) which has an issue with you doing LD, that could also be affecting the quality of your LDs if you have an issue with this at some level. Try to figure out what it if.. fear? or something else? One could say you are sabortaging your own LDs.